What a beutiful and emotionally full day.. It began with a suprise when I went through all the mail Id collected while I was gone. In there I found a package from my good freind Camil. He’d been to Lebanon in the fall and had planted several cedar  trees in Sam’s memory. In the packagage was a certicificate telling the parcels where the trees were. a map of the forest, an id card and a small tree figure with Sam’s names and dates. It was a beutiful way to remember Sam.. It was so moving to see this stuff from so far away now in or home. Shukran (Thanks so much) Camil..   That was a wonderful thing to do.

We also got a movie of a Samstone placement from my new good freind George. George placed his stone in the Joshua Tree forest while camping there. Check out this scenery..

Later  in the morning my good freind Vicki and her cool husband Greg dropped by on their way to see family. It was great catching up with them.. they are such amazing folks. We had a great conversatin on perspective. Vicki and Greg spend a good deal of their time volunteering with various orginizations. One of their favorites is the Ronald McDonald house in Burlington. We’re big fans of tthat orginization. They put us in Tampa after Sam’s accident.

Around midday we started on a big project with Gabe. Our goal was to build a skate board half pipe. We’d baught all the lumber yesterday.. . Our goal was to get most of it assembled today.. we got pretty close ! The first step was to trace the pattern for the ramp sides on a 4×8 piece of plywood. Diane had the good idea to use the video projector. That worked pretty well !

It was great working with Gabe.. he duid a big share of the work !

The shole thing came together nicely.. At this point we just need to move the 3 oeices and put the decking on !

Around 3 I got a call from all of our friends from The Colony TV show cast. Several of them were getting together in a resturant to talk.. It was great hearing from them all.. I miss them all very much ..  ThenAround 5, Gabe’s (and our) good freind Trevor came over. Trevor and his fmaily are moving to Texas on Tuesday. We’re realllllly goign to miss that kid !.  He’s been such a good friend to Gabe.. and has been an important addition to our family. He was here in the house the night we got the call that Sam had been hit.. I’ll never forget him being here.. Trevor’s such a great kid.. We’ll all miss him so much. I he he’s happy in Texas.. I think he wll be.

OK. I’m getting pretty sleepy.. so time for bed. More tomorrow.. Nite all. Nite Sam
-me

What a beutiful day.. this must be ‘sproing day’, the day that all the trees seem to sprout new leaves. I vemront in the dead of winter.. feet of snow an sub zero temperatures. I’m walkign back into high spring. There are so many shades of green appearing in the woods around our house. Diane pointed it that it’s almost like another foliage season. …
   We spent a good deal of the day outside.. we wore shorts though it was really still too cool to get away with it (maybe 50 degrees this morning). It didn’t matter.. we were determined to get in the summery mood. We drove abotu an hour to Gabe’s Lacrosse game at Lamoille union.. He had a great game today.. he looks so huge out there witht he other 7th and 8th graders.. We drove home through stowe and woterbury with great viws of the mountians.. still snow up there.. but none down in the valleys.
   After lunch we headed to the hardware store to pick up wood for a half pipe we’re buildign with gabe.. that was fun and time consuming.. tomorrow we start to put the thing together. I’m not looking forward to cutting out curves in 3/4 inch plywood. I’m  askign the univers to help me cut straight and true ….    I’ll report back on how it goes..
   We had a great dinner at Jen and Tim’s..  Everyone is trying to feed me because I got so thin during my trip.. I could not sto eating tonguht. As Always Jen and Tim were wonderful hosts.. what great people ! I found this on their fridge.. I like the sentiment..

   Right now I’m having trouble staying awake.,. it seems taht ever since I returned form The Colony.. I fall asleep every time I sit down.. I guess I’m really sleep deprived … We’ll let me see what I can do about that !..   Gnite for now folke.. nite Sam
-me
  

Another day of trying to come down to earth. Many times during the day I have this strong feeling of displacement and spaciness. For example,  I got confused how to work the shower this morning (really).. I lost my 3rd pair of glasses for the week this afternoon.. and   I was driving today and forgot where I was. when I start eating.. I just can’t stop.  and here’s a wierd one.. I feel drunk every time I eat !.. I find I’m missing the place and the people I spent my last 2 months. I’ve heard that prisoners sometimes miss their cells when they finally get freedom.. wierd and unexpected..

I came home around 6 to find freinds Ryan, Eric and Jake at the house.. It was good catching up with them….

Jake got soem new ink.. Check out the initials.. SMC… Sam, now there’s a good  friend !

Before dinner Diane, Gabe Kristin and I did our part of Green Up Day…we cleaned up trash along Duxbury Rd. .as we’ve done for 27 years…  Gabe reminded me of the time that Sam found a whole bag of girly magazines in the bushes as we picked up trash….
This year the pickings were good.. but not that interesting…. lots of cans and bottles. Chardonay is the choice of the chug and through crownd.. and Bud Light edged out labatts as the prefered beer of litteres…

As every year we found a fair number of fast food wrappers.. which is suprising becase the closest mcdonalds or bruger king is 15 miles away.. It takes some malice ot drag this sh*t all the way to the woods of jonesville.

Ciggarette butts were the most frequent find.. along with the occasional toothbrush ?!

ooops  I must also be a culprit.. one of the finds was a page out of my calendar.. must have blown off the recycling truck !

Overall, a good haul.. 3 bags in 1/4 mile.. I wonder how much the whole state will yield in a day tomorrow ?

It was strangly calming walkign along the road behind the house picking up trash in the beutiful sunset…. I really felt like home..

But… please no more itter…

Gnite folks.. GNite Sam
-me

Home again, home again…  man it’s been a wierd couple of days. I’ve spent the last 48 hours trying to explain to people where I’ve been and what I’ve been doing…and I just haven’t been able to put it into words. I know  I’m not supposed to talk about the expereince or the show until it goes on TV sometime later this summer or fall.  I can live with that.. but the real barrier to communication is something much deeper. I just can’t begin to put the experience into words. It was so very different from anything I’v eever done before.. the setting the experience.. the people .. especially the people. I’ve been emailing with some of the other from the show and can tell that they, too are struggling a bit to reintigrate..  I think we all feel like we’ve landed on some alien planet and are trying to make sense of it. It would be fun if I didn’t feel so spacey doing it.
   Job one was to fit back in.. to that end I desperately needed a haircut.. here’s what I looked like monday night:

here’s who I looked on Tuesday night. (Note the happy glow I have of seeing Gabe for the first time !.. I missed him SO much !)

And here’s how I looked Wednesday morning.. ready to reinter civilization:

It was great resynching with friends at work today..  There were a  few big changes . One good friend had passed away suddenly while out running.  which was a terrible shock   Another good freind had quit IBM.. which was suprising.. but in a good way. All in all, very little had changed there. I think the big changes were all in my head… now.. what to do with that ?!  I have to think about that…  but for now.. time for sleep

Gnite all. Gnite Sam
-me